The Diving-Petrels are a small family of four species of small seabirds
in the genus Pelecanoides. They are only found in the southern hemisphere:
two species from South America -- including the Peruvian Diving-Petrel
(left) -- and two circumpolar species, one in the sub-Antarctic and another
in more temperate (but still quite cold) southern waters (as in New Zealand
& Tasmania). All the diving-petrels resemble each other closely, and
are separated on details of breadth & length of their stout bills,
plus details of the distribution of whitish on underparts or face (note
the partial "ear-surround" on this Peruvian species).

Although diving-petrels are clearly in the Order Procellariiformes,
having "tube-noses" as do albatrosses, shearwaters, and storm-petrels,
they have diverged long ago from those groups. Most of the Procellariiformes
are masters of the air, gliding for hours above the waves, but the diving-petrels
are better adapted for the sea. They have stocky bodies with short wings
and thick necks, and fly with whirling wingbeats. In this they quite resemble
the completely unrelated auks and relatives (Alcidae) of the northern hemisphere.
This is a case of convergent evolution. They are agile swimmers and divers,
even in the roughest of seas, and in this they again resemble the auks
or penguins. Like alcids, they ride rather buoyantly on the water surface
when not diving.

Diving-petrels are generally found singly or in loose groups on the
ocean, but they breed in dense colonies, mostly on offshore islands with
only a few mainland colonies in protected areas. Nests are in burrows and,
as with many colonial seabirds, they arrive and depart those burrows at
night to avoid predators. Diving-petrels tend to feed inshore and rarely
disperse far from the breeding colonies, although a few individuals have
been encountered a fair distance offshore (Carboneras 1992).

There is no "family book" per se of which I'm aware (there are numerous
coffee-table "survey" books that include diving-petrels among other seabirds),
but a good introduction to the family, with nice photos of two species
onshore, is in Carboneras (1992).